By Tiernan Ray

Here are some things going on this morning in your world of tech:

Sprint surprises

Shares of Sprint (S) are up 25 cents, or 3.3%, at $7.94, after the company this morning reportedQ4 revenue of $9.14 billion, and a net loss of 26 cents, which was a bit better than the Street consensus of $8.99 billion and negative 32 cents per share. The company ended the quarter with 55.4 million subscribers, and added 477,000 subscribers on its own platform (not counting declines at Nextel), with 58,000 of those being post-paid, and 322,000 being prepaid.

Jennifer Fritzsche with Wells Fargo, who has an Outperform rating on the shares, writes the results were better than feared, with the Ebitda margin in wireless of 14.4% beating her own 12.7% estimate. The net adds in post-paid were much better than her expectations for a loss of 420,000.

Net adds were helped by tablet sales, she notes, “which allowed postpay net adds to actually be positive!” and “is especially surprising to us given the weaker porting trends and the limited amount of advertising Sprint seen in the quarter.”

The company’s annual capital expense outlook for $8 billion is lower than investors have been expecting, she notes.

With lots of chatter in recent months about a Sprint acquisition of T-Mobile U.S. (TMUS), CEO Dan Hesse declined to comment on speculation about consolidation when addressing analysts on the conference call this morning.

Maybe change is good for Rackspace

Shares of Rackspace Hosting (RAX) are down $6.72, or 17%, at $33.64, after the company’s CEO Lanham Napierlast night announced his retirement, overshadowing a better-than-expected Q4 revenue results.

There don’t appear to have been any ratings changes, but some price target cuts here and there. Cowen & Co.’s Colby Synesael reiterates an Outperform rating on the shares, and cuts his price target to $52 from $54, writing that patience is required, but that the transition could be a good thing, in the end.

He sees Taylor Rhodes, currently president, as the ultimate CEO heir, though Graham Weston, a Rackspace co-founder, was officially appointed CEO.

“While the CEO transition is likely to cause some concern among investors, we believe a “fresh” perspective will prove beneficial for the company.”

The nuances of Nuance’s outlook

Shares of Nuance Communications (NUAN) are down 73 cents, or 4.6%, at $15.04, after the company last night beat fiscal Q1 results, but forecast this quarter’s revenue below consensus. I’ve not seen any ratings changes today, and there are several bears coming to the stock’s defense.

Canaccord Genuity’s Richard Davis reiterates a Buy rating, and a $22 price target, writing that “Bookings growth of 26% is a fairly reliable precursor to a return to growth, as Nuance works its way through business model shifts in the Healthcare and Mobile & Consumer segments,” and that “we believe investors’ perception of Nuance’s fundamentals is still more negative than likely reality.”

Tavis McCourt of Raymond Jamese reiterates a Market Perform rating, writing that the bookings growth was, indeed, “impressive, in his view. He writes that as the smartphone market has ebbed as a source of growth, “the connected car seems to be the next growth opportunity focus as the auto end market is now roughly the same size as the smartphone end market for Nuance, with far better top line trends.”

Less burn at BlackBerry

Shares of BlackBerry (BBRY) are down 13 cents, or 1.3%, at $9.74, after RBC Capital Markets’s Mark Sue reiterated a Sector Perform rating on the stock, while raising his price target to $11 from $10, writing that the threat of cash burn may have been over-estimated, writing “We now expect services revenues to decline at a slower rate, while we expect BlackBerry’s purchase commitments to decrease.”

“Add real estate sale and opex cuts and BlackBerry may achieve its target of cash-flow breakeven by FY16.”

He notes “real earnings may still be years away for BlackBerry, but the slope of the service revenues decline appears manageable down -27% YoY in FY15 to -19% YoY in FY16.”

Apple rising

Shares of Apple (AAPL) continue to rise after yesterday’s surrender by Carl Icahn in his share buyback demands. The stock is up $6.76, or 1.3%, at $535.75.

In the newspapers today, a federal appellate court yesterday rejected Apple’s request to place a stay order on a court-appointed monitor of the company’s e-books business, as related by The New York Times’s Digits’sMatthew Goldstein. Apple had argued that the monitor, Michael Bromwich, was conducting oversight in an unreasonable manner. Bromwich was appointed following Apple’s loss in a price-fixing e-books case last year.

Speaking of Apple, shares of chip maker Amkor Technology (AMKR), which sells to Apple for the iPhone, are down 25 cents, or almost 5%, at $5.07, after the company last night reportedQ4 revenue that slightly missed consensus, but beat on the bottom line, and projected this quarter’s results well below consensus.

In a note to clients this morning, Credit Suisse’s Jonathan Pitzer reiterated an Outperform rating, and a $5.50 price target, noting that the company is indicating a ramping up of production of parts using 20-nanometer chip technology, which he thinks might be destined for Apple products. He argues “the pullback could give opportunity for investors” if indeed there is a revenue ramp coming from Apple and other customers in Q2.

InvenSense soars

Shares of sensor maker InvenSense (INVN) are up $1.94, or almost 10%, at $21.52, after the company said after market close yesterday that it had settled a patent disputes between itself and ST Microelectronics (STM), without admission of liability on either side.

Evercore’s Mark McKechnie this morning reiterates an Overweight rating on InvenSense shares, and a $22 price target, writing that “We had always thought INVN had the upper hand as it held key early art for motion sensing applications in a silicon cavity, but are relieved by the settlement.”

“The company has not released any details, but we expect to see more in a filing later this week,” he adds. The settlement removes the “specter of large open-ended legal bills.”

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.